1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a robot apparatus, and more particularly, is suitably applied to a robot apparatus which utilizes a CPU to instruct and control motions thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many of robots are assembled in a predetermined form by a variety of component units including a body, legs, a head, and so on respectively combined in predetermined states defined by a predetermined correlation of the component units.
In such a structure, a robot has a control unit having structure of a microcomputer including a CPU as well as actuators having a predetermined degree of freedom and sensors for detecting predetermined physical amounts, and so on, which are placed at their respective predetermined positions. The control unit individually controls the operations of the respective actuators based on outputs of the respective sensors, associated programs, and so on, thereby enabling the robot to autonomously run and perform predetermined operations.
As an alternative, in recent years, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open 245784/93, a robot which can be constructed in a desired form by combining a plurality of joint modules and a plurality of arm modules has been considered.
The robot disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open 245784/93 has a function of setting a unique number to each joint module. A control unit can recognize a connection order in which respective joint modules are connected, based on the unique numbers of the joint modules provided thereto through communications between the control unit and the joint modules, and rewrite a control program in an appropriate program based on recognition results.
This configuration allows the robot to eliminate a sequence of operations required to create software at the site for assembling the robot (for example, editing, compilation, link, and so on of programs).
In the robot configured as described above, however, the control unit recognizes the connection order for the respective joint modules based on the unique numbers thereof, so that if the connection order for the joint modules is to be changed, new unique numbers must be set again to the respective joint modules corresponding to the change.
In addition, since the foregoing Japanese Patent Laid Open 245784/93 is intended to provide a manipulator device, the contents disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open 245784/93 are not sufficient to support a robot including two or more separate groups of component units and support a robot utilizing a variety of sensors such as a microphone, a camera, and so on.
For example, in a robot composed of a plurality of component units, if a control unit controlling the operation of the robot can automatically acquire information required to control operations of the component units, such as the shapes of respective component units, positions of parts such as actuators and a variety of sensors, capabilities of these parts, and so on, the control unit can automatically create a corresponding program even when two or more separate groups of component units are combined into a complete assembly, when a new component unit is added or removed or a component unit is repositioned. Therefore, the architecture of a robot in a new form can be facilitated.